The Globe. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 28.

Globe, Volume II, Issue 102, 28 September 1874, Page 2

The Globe. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 28.

A case rivalling in wickedness that of the Murillo, and the more recent one of the Oakworth, will be found on reference to our shipping columns. A topsail schooner, through the carelessness or incompetency of her captain and crew, runs into the Timaru Bank lightship, and without a word of communication passing between the two vessels, sails away immediately on getting clear, and leaves the unfortunate person or persons who may happen to form the crew of the lightship to their fate. No words, that can be written, can be strong enough to apply to the master of a vessel who acts in this manner; his conduct must be allowed to be of the most dastardly description, and his seamanship must be at fault to allow of such an accident taking place. It appears that the schooner gwas an outward bound one and if so, it ought to be impossible that those in charge of her can escape from the punishment due to their crime. The name of the vessel must be known, and we should be doing the authorities an injustice, if we did not suppose that they have taken steps to bring the perpetrators of the deed before a court of justice. There really appears to be an awful and criminal carelessness about life, prevalent among the captains and crews of vessels engaged in the mercantile marine, and the sudden and sharp check upon such conduct which would be effected by a severe sentence on an offender in tins respect, might have the effect of making captains more careful for the future. We speak from experience when we say that not one vessel in a dozen complies with the regulations about carrying lights at night if she is clear of port, and English ships are as great offenders in this respect as any others. Coasting vessels are often manned with incompetent crews, and watch is kept in the most slovenly and disgraceful manner, discipline is unknown on board, and the authority of officers, other than the master, is the merest farce. Added to this is the fact that many of the small craft trading between the various parts of the Australian colonies are owned and commanded by men who would not be able to oba’berth in any respectable merchant ship, sailing out of an English port, but who in these seas have the lives of men and the property of merchants committed into their care in the most trusting manner. That the proportion of wrecks and accidents, looking at these facta, is so small, is marvellous, and we hope that the Legislature will shortly pass an Act which shall insist on a much more careful examination into the competency of a ship master than is now the case in these colonies.

Recent correspondents have shown, from figures published by the Registrar-General, that Christchurch is the unhealthiest borough in the colony, and we have waited patiently to sec whether our City Council would deem it worth while to take action on the matter. However, nothing has been done, and it is time that public attention was directed towards what ere long will be a most serious matter. It will be recollected that, during last summer, fever and sickness of various kinds abounded. Whole families in some instances were swept away, and the medical men were at work night and day. 1 f this was the state of things then with a comparatively sparse population, and when, except in rare instances, not more than one family resided in each house, how much more is the advent of the summer season to be dreaded now. Our population is increased, we have had people poured in by hundreds, people too, who to a great extent come amongst us with the seeds of disease, and yet our City Council, in whose hands is the preservation of health and the general sanitary supervision of the city, coolly stands by and sees families packed like herrings into thewretched little dens called houses, forming perfect hotbeds of fever and other diseases. We venture to say that in no part of New Zealand is there to be seen such a huddling together of human beings, with a total absence of all sanitary precautions, as can be seen any day within five minutes walk of the centre of the city. We say at once, and without in the least mincing the matter, for to do so.would be to shirk

our duty, that such a state of things as this should not be allowed to exist for one moment, and the City Council are culpable in the highest degree if they allow it to continue.

The great majority of our readers perusing the report of the meeting of the Canterbury Cottage Building Company, must have been surprised at the termination of a company whose objects were ostensibly the supply of what is perhaps now the greatest want in Canterbury. That it should have wound up now, when there is, and has been for months, a positive dearth of house accommodation, is perfectly inexplicable, and one cannot but smile incredulously when the statement is made that the company has been wound up because it was found it would not pay. Connected with the company were many men of business, men who from the very nature of their associations might be supposed to have been able, in some degree at least, to foresee the opportunity which has arisen, not only for making a handsome dividend for the shareholders, but also proving of incalculable benefit to the general public. At present the unfortunate who is landed upon our shores has to submit to the grossest extortion —we use the word extortion advisedly—in the way of house rent. He is compelled to pay extravagant prices for houses of the packing case style of architecture, and if ho complains he is coolly told ‘< I can get somebody else at once. ” The unfortunate tenants are at the mercy, or rather the rapacity of the landlord who is master of the situation and mercilessly makes use of his advantages. In view of this state of things, which no one will say is exaggerated, it is matter for wonder that a company of this kind should have collapsed, and that after eleven years of existence. Had a little energy been shown in its management, instead of having a loss of Is per share to report, it would have paid a handsome dividend, and would be in possession of a freehold property daily increasing in value. Not only this, but the extortion to which the househunters in Christchurch have to submit, would at any rate be mitigated by a healthy competition instead of as now having a monopoly to contend with.